


What she had to do

by Wherethereissmoak



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 05:35:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10507338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wherethereissmoak/pseuds/Wherethereissmoak
Summary: Here's my post-5x18 fic. I wanted to explore what Felicity was thinking a bit in the episode and why she wasn't there with Digg when he talked to Oliver. And then of course, I couldn't leave it at a sad point so I had to add some future spec. :) Enjoy!





	

**Author's Note:**

> Posted late at night, so please excuse any typos.

Felicity rolled over with a groan. Probably the worst night of sleep she had in a while – and that wasn’t saying much because she hadn’t really slept well since her breakup with Oliver.

It had been almost a year now, and she still missed sleeping in his arms. She couldn’t seem to…settle without him.

Thinking of Oliver gave her a sharp pain in her chest. She closed her eyes again and tried to push the images of him staggering into the bunker yesterday after he was released from Chase’s torture. He couldn’t even look at her. Despite the end of their romantic relationship, they had remained friends and had at least always had eye contact.

Not physical contact after the incident last summer with the Russian Vodka and the salmon ladder, but eye contact at least.

And when he had finally looked at her, his voice broke. As if she was a trigger to the memories of his time in captivity that haunted him. It was more than she could bear. The man she loved was in pain, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. In fact, she just made it worse.

So when he had locked them out of the bunker yesterday, yeah, she could have hacked it in minutes, but she understood that he needed his space. So she had lent the team the loft to continue their mission. One that she wouldn’t be working that closely with them on – because she was going to find a way to ruin Chase once and for all doing what she did best – technology.

She glanced over at the clock, thinking of the team reminding her that they would be here soon for their meeting. What does one feed an allegedly disbanded superhero team? Bagels? Donuts? Felicity certainly wasn’t cooking. She texted Diggle and told him to bring pastries and she would put on a cup of coffee.

She hopped in the shower and was dressed and ready when the doorbell ring. She opened the door for the team and was about to grab her coffee and leave for Helix when Diggle wanted to talk to her. He wanted to tag team Oliver to talk some sense into him. Diggle was right that Oliver needed a friend – but she wasn’t the one to do it. Not this time. Not when the very sight of her was painful to him.

No, she would not be spending more time with Oliver until she had to – he needed time to heal. Besides, if he thought going to the Bratva would help get rid of that bastard Chase, then so be it. Nothing else they had tried thus far had worked. She could tell by the look in Digg’s eyes that he was surprised by her saying that, but she didn’t have time to worry about it. She had to get to Helix to try to break through the software that was disguising Chase as Prometheus.  

A few days later, Oliver was back in somewhat good spirits and she had handed him over the decrypted image of Prometheus removing his mask on a Starling City roof.

And then he had looked at her. With pride, not regret. And for a moment, Felicity believed that everything was going to be OK.

But in her heart, she knew that it wasn’t. They would never have peace until Prometheus was gone. She looked at Oliver’s Green Arrow costume in the box and vowed to do whatever she needed to get that done.

***

Oliver watched the team leave, and Felicity leaving with them. Digg stayed behind, also frowning in her direction.

“John,” he said.

“Yeah, I know, she’s off.”

“She has been for a while, but now it seems different – worse even,” Oliver said. “What do you know about this Helix she’s working with.”

“Not much, other than they do a lot of morally questionable things. Felicity thinks it’s for the greater good, but I’m not so sure, man,” Diggle said. “Curtis is trying to get in and get us intel.”

“So what are we going to do? Do you think I should talk to her?” Oliver asked. When it came to Felicity, he had felt lost since their breakup.

“I don’t know, man. I tried the moral choices conversations and that pretty much inspired her to go in the other direction,” Diggle said. “Short of locking her up until this whole thing is over, I don’t think so. There is nothing she won’t do to stop Prometheus now.”

“Because of Billy,” Oliver said. Diggle snorted.

“Yeah in part, and also because of you. Chase hurt you, Oliver, and Felicity is not going to let that slide,” Diggle said.

“But if she cared so much – why wasn’t she here with you when you were trying to talk to me after I got back from being kidnapped?”

Diggle sighed.

“And where exactly were you when she was laying in a hospital bed full of bullet holes?” he said.

Oliver sat down in a nearby chair and put his head in his hands. “You’re right, but this is Felicity we are talking about,” he said. “We can’t let anything happen to her.”

Diggle just nodded.

“OK, I’m going to go with the talking route and you work with Curtis to see if he can get leads on Helix’s plans in case that doesn’t work,” Oliver said.

The conversation with Felicity had not gone well. She had been cold and detached in a way he had never seen before – except in himself. And like her and Diggle had done so many times for him before, he was going to pull her back.

Curtis was able to learn that Helix asked Felicity to go on a mission to hack a mainframe for them in exchange for their part in finding Chase. Team Green Arrow had scoped out the site to discover that Helix was setting Felicity up to take the fall for many of their crimes.

The team was able to extricate her in time – but Felicity was still pissed at them for their interference. Back at the bunker, she started to use her loud voice. Oliver asked the team to give the two of them the room. Diggle had offered to stay, but he knew that the two of them had a lot of things to talk about between just themselves.

Felicity was about to say her piece and storm off when they heard a rumble above them. Oliver grabbed her and pulled her under the nearest desk as the whole ground began to shake and pieces of the ceiling fell around the bunker. There was a loud bang and then nothing – complete silence.

“Are you OK?” Oliver asked, noticing a small cut on her forehead from debris.

“Yeah, I think so, are you?”

He nodded and climbed out from under the table and surveyed the damage. The elevator doors were open and large pieces of concrete were inside the elevator. The back entrance was filled with concrete debris and rubble as well.

“What the hell happened?” he asked.

“I hate to say it, but I think this might be Helix’s way of getting revenge for you foiling their plans tonight,” Felicity said sadly. “I think they might have had the office above rigged with explosives.”

“They knew about this place?”

“Yeah, they figured everything out relatively quickly,” she replied. “They are all genius hackers, after all.”

He walked over to the elevator shaft and surveyed the damage, and then over to the back entrance.

“It looks like we might be stuck down here for a while,” Oliver said. “Can you get ahold of Digg?”

Felicity tried her phone, and the other electronics, but could not get any signal.

“Looks like they took out all my connectivity,” Felicity said. “It probably won’t be until tomorrow morning when Diggle realizes we are missing and comes to find us. The explosive was relatively contained and we are in a pretty much abandoned neighborhood. Yeah, it could be a while.”

Oliver walked over to Felicity’s desk and opened the drawer next to her chair.

“Oliver! What are you doing! You can’t get into that now!” She reached over and tried to slam the door shut.

“Felicity, if there ever was a time to bust into your emergency snack stash, it would be now,” Oliver said.

She tried to grab a bag of chips out of his hand when she looked up at him, suddenly realizing how close they were. She tried and failed in her attempt not to tremble when his gaze dropped to her lips. He reached over and pulled her into his arms, and she tried not to think about how good it felt.

“I’m so sorry that we are trapped down here. I should have listened to you about Helix,” she whispered into his shoulder.

“Felicity, you have told me time and time again when something isn’t my fault and now it’s my turn,” Oliver said. “You did what you had to do to find Chase, and you had no idea that Helix was planning to betray you.”

“I just wanted to do something good – outside of this team,” she said. “I wanted to be the hero for once.”

He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands.

“Felicity Smoak, you are and have always been a hero,” Oliver said. “You do not need a clandestine hacker organization to prove that. You have been remarkable since the moment I met you – and probably for many years before.”

He let her go and took a step back.

“I can say one good thing about being trapped down here,” Oliver said.

“There’s something good? Because I don’t consider you raiding my snack drawer good,” Felicity joked.

“No, the fact that I’m trapped here with you,” he said. He was making a significant effort to maintain eye contact, but she could tell he wanted to hang his head. Flustered and nervous Oliver Queen was a rare sight indeed.

“Oliver…”

“Felicity. I love you. And I know that despite all the stupid things I’ve done, you love me too,” he said. She opened her mouth to speak and then promptly closed it, as if she could not deny what he said.

“But we have so much to work through,” Felicity whispered. “So much to repair everything we’ve done.”

“Well good thing we have nothing but time,” Oliver said, opening a bag of chips and sitting down on the bunker floor. “So let’s talk.”

“OK, fine, let’s talk,” she said, sitting next to him and grabbing a handful of chips. They talked long into the night – some of it was soft, some of it was passionate, and some of it was angry. When the team finally dug them out the next morning, they found Overwatch and Green Arrow asleep in each other’s arms.

 


End file.
